Save as Web - Hyperlink Target Frame Issues

[Steve B]

Hi all,

I'm using the Save as Web funtionality in Visio (in particular the VML webs) to publish some documentation lists. My company Intranet has 3 frames named Title, Menu, and Content. I currently publish my Visio output webs to the Content frame which places the Visio VML frame set as a subset within my Intranet's Content frame. This method then leaves the Menu frame still available for Intranet navigation.

However, when I hyperlink to any other documents from the visio webs, I would like these other documents to be published to my Intranet's Content frame. I'm happy to overwrite the Visio output web pages as my users can then either "back out" of the new document, or re-navigate to the parent Visio web pages using the Menu.

At present the hyperlinked documents are either published over the top of all 3 of my intranet frames or of course to a separate new window. I have tried several attempts to edit the target frames of _blank and _top etc for my Hyperlinks in the visio produced code and of course I have tried the Frame cell in the Visio Shapeheet prior to Saving as Web - but to no avail. I have also tried to target the visio produced frame sets of "frmToolbar", "frmDrawing",  etc. in the visio produced "frameset.js" file - again with no success.

John Goldsmith's elegant solution "Escaping from Save as Web Page links" at http://visualsignals.typepad.co.uk/vislog/2007/12/ does offer me a halway house, but relies on users having to "Ctrl-Click" then use the link I can now publish. I can even publish hyperlinked documents using this method to the Content frame of my Intranet; which is progress indeed. However my issue remains.

Are there any Visio Jedi's out there who can assist please?

Regards,
Steve B

[Steve B]

Hi all,

Due to John Goldsmith nudging me in the right direction -  See http://visualsignals.typepad.co.uk/vislog/2007/12/escaping-from-s.html#comments  and navigate down to "Escaping from Save as Web Page links"  - I managed to find a solution. The answer turned out to be quite simple in the end. Here's the full method for completeness.

Preparation: Design your Visio Drawing and add the Hyperlinks as usual. Then open the Stylesheet for the objects you wish to target the frames for, and amend NewWindow cell to True if a new window is required. Or in my case ensure that it is still set to False (i.e. no new window required). Next save the drawing using the Save as Web Page option. During this phase I use the Publish button rather than the Save button, and I ensure that the settings are as I require. i.e. Details, Goto Page, Search Pages, and Pan and Zoom are the only selections I use in the General Tab. Also in the Advanced Tab I select VML, JPEG Alternate format, and I target the size of the drawing to 1024x768. 

Fix: After publishing as a Save as Web Page we get the main HTM page and the Files directory as described by John in his blog mentioned earlier. So now open in an editor the "frameset.js" file within the Files directory. Then search for "top.location" and replace with "self.location". I had 2 instances in all my tests.

You can now use the main.HTM page with a frame reference in your Intranet etc. and any Hyperlinks should open in the same targetted frame.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Steve B